"It was cold as hell," said the obviously confused Hall of Famer, who not only forgot that Hades trends warm but also that he's supposed to be Old Man Winter. "I haven't thawed out yet. It's easy to lose focus when the conditions are like they were today."

Yep, when it's freezing cold and the winds are sweeping across the frozen tundra, there's no better quarterback than ... Kyle Orton. Haven't keen NFL observers been saying as much for years?

Then there's the Bears defense, which obviously has been unfairly maligned. Though they were without Pro Bowl linebacker Lance Briggs and several other starters, the Bears still took the Packers behind the woodshed and gave 'em a whuppin'.

What a team!

As defensive coordinator Bob Babich said: "Any time you beat your rivals twice in a season and beat a team tied for No. 1 in the NFC and win a game like we won today, it shows we are a good football team."

Absolutely. Pay no attention to the Bears' 6-9 record. After Sunday's 35-7 victory, the theme of the day in the locker room was: "Next season began today."

"That was kind of our tone, to kick-start this next run," Bears coach Lovie Smith said. "It's good for our team to see we can still play a little bit of football and see the type of team we can be if we take care of some things."

Cynics might suggest that the Bears, feeling no pressure after having been eliminated from the playoffs, simply took advantage of Favre and the Packers having a stinker of a game.

Even Chicago defensive end Alex Brown suggested as much: "You start making plays and it snowballs. They just had a bad day and we had a pretty good day."

He must have missed the next-season-starts-now memo. What he didn't miss was a chance to pick off Favre. But unlike teammate Brian Urlacher, who went 85 yards to score after intercepting Favre, Brown was tackled almost immediately.

"Oh, it’ll get better as I get older," Brown said, laughing as he thought about how he one day will embellish his I-picked-Brett tale. "Give me 20, 25 years, I’ll score on that play. Oh yeah. I’ll shake like three people. I’ll stiff-arm Donald Driver. Oh yeah, it’ll get better as the years go on."

The Packers hardly looked like a team that went into the day with a 12-2 record - though they did find some inventive ways to take return maniac Devin Hester out of the game: Jon Ryan had two punts blocked, was buried by Bears after dropping a snap and shanked a couple out of bounds.

While Ryan and Favre (passer rating: 40.2) couldn't handle the conditions, Orton, the Bears' new/old/new QB savior, did fine. His 103.6 rating would have been even higher had Moose Muhammad not let a sure touchdown pass bounce off his chest.

Back in 2005, when then-rookie Orton was forced into the lineup due to Rex Grossman's injury (and Chad Hutchinson's incompetence), Muhammad regularly and publicly ripped Orton. Playing again after another Grossman injury (and Brian Griese's incompetence), Orton seemed to relish the opportunity to throw Moose under the bus.

"It was a big spot in the game; Moose just dropped it," Orton said. "That's a play we expect him to make, and I'm sure he expects it. But we were able to overcome it and move on and score points."

Orton benefited from a running attack that included Adrian Peterson's 102 yards. That left Smith giddy: "We're set up to play through conditions like this."

So what if their rushing offense went into the week ranked 32nd out of 32 teams? Details, details.

"The Packers are going to the playoffs, having a great year," Bears center Olin Kreutz said. "We just stole one from them."

Such false modesty.

Intelligent, objective people know the Bears will use the momentum gained from Sunday's victory (and what's sure to be a season-ending thumping of the shivering Saints next week) to go 16-0 in 2008 ... minimum.

The Bears are back, baby!

Mike Nadel (mikenadel@sbcglobal.net) is the Chicago sports columnist for GateHouse News Service. Read his blog, The Baldest Truth, at www.thebaldesttruth.com.